Autonomy Rights Research Articles

Nature as a Legal Person: Proxy Constellations in Law

Thirty years after the Hamburg seals case, autonomous rights for nature are no longer a merely utopian idea, but a social reality— and, in view of urgent ecological questions, a necessity. By expanding the stakeholder status in politics and law, ecosystems and animals are being empowered de lege lata to enforce their rights as non-human legal persons in the courts. I will first trace current trends in the juridical personification of non-human persons. I will then explore the potential for opening the concept of legal personhood to non-human legal persons from a theoretical perspective—considering the limitations of this approach as well. Finally, I will sketch out the current framework for legal action brought by non-human persons in German, European, and international law.

Hong Kong: Wake-Up Call

In this piece, the editor of Common Knowledge offers excerpts from his two-year correspondence with a reader in Hong Kong, who was drawn to arguments made in the journal about maintaining “quietism and resistance in the face of vile behavior.” In the summer and fall of 2019, during the insurrection in Hong Kong, his correspondent shifts rapidly from taking comfort in CK’s defense of quietism to a full embrace of “uncivil disobedience.” She implies that the solidarity the editor expresses with Hong Kong is merely rhetorical, and he responds by writing this article and quoting in it the entire text of the 1984 Joint Declaration of the Chinese and British governments on the question of Hong Kong. The declaration’s guarantees of autonomy and civil rights appear in bold italics. The editor concludes by suggesting that it falls to the United Nations Security Council to enforce the terms of the treaty.

Otonomi Desa Dan Efektifitas Efisiensi Tata Kelola Dana Desa di Kabupaten Sidoarjo

Financial management is included in the village's autonomous rights. The current program given by the government is the provision of village funds. Providingvillage fund programs to finance implementation of development, and empoweringvillage communities. The results of the analysis show that village financial managementin Sidoarjo Regency is in accordance with the provisions stipulated by the centralgovernment referring to Regulation of the Minister of Home Affairs number 113 of2014, where in the budgeting process through funding procedures, the implementationof fund disbursement, administration, accountability reporting and publication . Indetermining the priority of the use of funds in accordance with the provisions of theVillage Minister Regulation Number 21 of 2015 and guided by the Village RKP andRPJM, where in the preparation of the Village RKP and RPJM involves all elements ofgovernment, BPD and the community in general. The constraints faced are the problemof using village funds for activities that do not appear in the account code of thesiskeudes, as well as getting around the priority of village development activities thatcome out of the Minister of Home Affairs Regulation number 113 of 2014. Keyword: village autonomy, efficiency effectiveness, village funds

The Implications of Village Regulation toward the Dualism of Local Leadership Dynamics

The transformation of local leadership in Bali has implications for the emergence of various phenomena of the relationship of desa dinas (the official administrative village) and desa adat (the customary village) which both have autonomous rights. The authority of desa adat and desa dinas coincides with each other. With these conditions, various potential conflicts, poor communication patterns, and overlapping authority are very likely to occur at the local level. In this study, several issues will be discussed, namely: What is the model and process of transformation in local leadership especially in desa adat in Bali? What is the process and form of negaranisasi in local leadership especially in desa adat in Bali? What are the competencies and roles of local leaders in the local leadership process in Bali? What are the roots, the causes and solutions in handling horizontal conflicts in local leadership in Bali? Data were collected by interview, documentation and focus group discussion method to obtain sufficient data variance and validity. Furthermore, the data were analyzed qualitatively using interactive models from Miles and Huberman. The results of the study can be described, that the synergy of two (2) types of local leadership is needed. The capacity and competence of village officials and prajuru adat (customary officials) are obliged to be enhanced, strengthened and empowered, so that they are able to adapt in handling various problems that arise in rural communities in the era of modernization and globalization. For this reason, it is needed to build a synergic relationship model and leadership coordination system between desa dinas and desa adat, a model for developing the capacity and competency of village officials and prajuru adat, and developing a model for handling conflicts that have increasingly intense.

Fat taxation in India: A critical appraisal of need, public health impact, and challenges in nationwide implementation.

National Nutritional Monitoring Bureau survey (2017) has found that more than half of the adults in India were overweight and obese. To halt this rising epidemic, development of various policy measures has been suggested in National action plan for prevention and control of noncommunicable diseases. One such measure is the introduction of fat tax which is a surcharge or tax placed on food and beverages containing high amounts of fat. Government of India has made various direct budgetary initiatives for boosting the sectors related to the production of items rich in fat, sugars and salt without realizing the potential public health consequences. Hence, increasing the taxes for unhealthy junk foods should encourage the people to take healthier food options which in turn lead to positive impact on health. However, fat taxationfaced several challenges during implementation in countries like Denmark, Hungary, France and United States. Major challenges were the taxation debate, setting tax limit and encroaching into the autonomy rights of people. Evidences have shown that taxation alone cannot bring down the burden of non-communicable diseases but should be combined with measures like subsidies and access to healthy food items, public health education campaigns and programmes.

Cultural Autonomy in Hungary: Inward or Outward Looking?

AbstractSince the late 1980s, the interpretations of policy toward Hungary’s minorities—most notably the country’s 1993 minority law and the minority self-governments established as part of a system of nonterritorial autonomy (NTA)—have been the subject of debates in politics and academia in at least two critical respects. Aside from the declarative character of the law, foremost has been the question of Hungary’s kin-state activism toward Hungarians abroad and the implications this has carried for domestic minority issues. A second—and related—question has concerned the extent to which cultural autonomy and minority rights are in accordance with the needs of the Roma, by far the country’s largest ethnic minority group. A growing number of scholars have accepted the argument that the minority law was enacted because of concerns regarding Hungarian minorities living in the neighboring countries. In our view, it is more appropriate to ask instead how Hungary’s kin-state policies have influenced the opportunities for domestic groups, and, in particular, how Hungary fits into the broader context of post-Communist state- and nation-building projects. This is the approach we take in this article, which aims to unpack and reconcile the complex and seemingly contradictory findings on the Hungarian case. Our conclusions are drawn from a content analysis of parliamentary debates on the minority law—something that has never previously been undertaken. This is supplemented by semi-structured interviews with former and current politicians and minority activists.

Local Nobility Self-Government and Central Authority in Hungary in the 16th — Early 17th Centuries

In the second quarter of the 16th century, after Hungary had become a part of the Austrian Habsburg monarchy, the royal power found itself in a difficult situation. The Hungarian kingdom was one of the parts of the state entity created by the Habsburgs in Central Europe, but its monarchs neither lived there, nor knew it well; moreover, they constantly fought for it with the Ottomans, and for a long time without evident success. The Habsburgs’ policy sought to unite the countries subject to them, to centralize and unify their governance. However, the above mentioned difficulties significantly slowed down the process of Hungary's transformation into an absolute monarchy. Thus, they could not create new local government institutions, completely obedient to the central authority, and were forced to use the existing system of Hungarian noble comitates (committees) — noble estate institutions with considerable autonomous rights. This, along with many other things, reflects the dualism in power characteristic of European estate monarchies. The article studies the organization, prerogatives and the functioning of the local nobility self-government in the Hungarian kingdom in the 16th — 17th centuries. Special attention is given to the interaction with the central government, focusing on the areas of regular activity — taxes, defence, jurisdiction, law enforcement. The author analyses the negotiation of compromise between the central and local authorities, as well as the limits of autonomous rights of the local nobility. The article touches on the problem of communication between the central authorities and local comitates, studying the existing means to carry out political dialogue. The State Assembly remained the main place for such a dialogue, where the noble deputies from the comitates conveyed their proposals and claims to the authorities, and upon returning broadcasted the common will of the estates and central authority — accumulated in the adopted laws — to the local nobility. The analysis of these issues allows to draw conclusions regarding the extent of effective participation of the estates in power of the Kingdom of Hungary under the early Habsburgs, striving for absolutism. Besides, the study of the relationship between the central authorities and local nobility self-government can give an answer to the question about the nature of power dualism: whether it was insoluble antagonism or it is preferable to describe it as cooperation.

Relationship between the Quality of Informed Consent at Surgical Procedure in Terms of Ethics and Medicolegal with Satisfaction of Patient Health Service in dr. Zainoel Abidin Hospital

Objective: To determine the relationship between the quality of informed consent in terms of ethics and medicolegal with patient health service satisfaction at the dr. Zainoel Abidin Hospital (ZAH) Banda Aceh. Method: This study is an observational analytic with a cross-sectional method. Subject selection through a total sampling method. This study involved patients who were treated at dr. Zainoel Abidin Hospital (ZAH) Banda Aceh and a total of patients were 100 (52 men and 48 women) who met the inclusion criteria carried out on 16 December 2019 to 31 December 2019. Results: As many as 90% of respondents rated informed consent made at ZAH as good quality and 85% expressed the satisfaction with health services at ZAH. An ethical and medicolegal review of informed consent emphasizes the basic principles of bioethics. As many as 84% of respondents stated that their autonomy rights had been fulfilled, 92.50% thought that the doctor had done beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice well in the process of informed consent and 92.33% of respondents rated the three elements of informed consent as being well implemented. Based on the results of the chi-square statistical test showed a significant relationship between the quality of informed consent in terms of ethics and medicolegal with patient health service satisfaction under the value of p = 0.001 (p≤0.05). Conclusion: Good quality of informed consent in terms of ethics and medicolegal has an important role in increasing patient satisfaction with health services at the dr. Zainoel Abidin Hospital of Banda Aceh.

Mazepa, Skoropadski, Połubotok. Proces likwidacji autonomii ukraińskiej za panowania Piotra I

The article is devoted to the gradual liquidation of the autonomous rights of left-bank Ukraine during the reign of Tsar Peter I (1682–1725). This process began in 1708 when during the ongoing Russo-Swedish War 1700–1721, Zaporizhia hetman Ivan Mazepa “betrayed” the tsar and turned it over to King Charles XII. This action was dictated by the desire of Mazepa’s supporters to shed Russian dependence and an attempt to create an independent (independent) Ukrainian state backed by Sweden and the Republic of Poland. Piotr I agreed to appoint successive hetmans – Ivan Skoropadski and Pawel Polubotka, but over the years he gradually limited their power. In 1722, the hetman’s office was liquidated, and control over the Ukrainian lands, for a short time until 1727, was taken over by the Malorossiya College – the Russian central office. According to Peter I, in the Russian Empire established in 1721, there was no room for any autonomous forms of power that could result in gaining independence. This reform lasted only two years, but it became a determinant for his successors as to how Ukrainian lands should be controlled and finally absorbed into Russia.

El derecho al medio ambiente sano como un derecho autónomo en el sistema interamericano de derechos humanos

The Advisory Opinion of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights No. OC-23/17, of 15 November 2017, on “Environment and Human Rights” and the ruling in the case Lhaka Honhat V. Argentina of 6 February 2020, develops the content of the right to a healthy environment from an approach that we could see as ecocentric. This right, as an autonomous right, protects nature not only because of its usefulness for human beings (anthropocentric-instrumental vision), but also because of its importance for other living organisms with which the planet is shared (biocentric-not instrumental vision). This paper analyzes this new right, giving an account of the possible legal philosophical presuppositions that inform it, as well as the possible changes that this new approach may bring to the Inter-American System of Human Rights.

Doctor, Doctor, Give Me The News: First Amendment Empowers Display and Describe Requirements for Purposes of Informed Consent and Commercial Speech

A woman has recognized rights under the Constitution to obtain an abortion, but she also has a right to personal autonomy. To preserve this right, the state must regulate the disclosures regarding an abortion procedure to ensure the patient is getting the information needed to make an informed decision about what happens to her body during an abortion. As history shows, courts have dealt with abortions with care by honoring the woman’s autonomy. As the right to choose to get an abortion is fundamental, the right of the woman to be apprised of all of the facts and all of the risks associated with the procedure is equally as fundamental when looking at our nation’s history. One of the ways to advocate for the woman’s right to an abortion and to consent to what happens to her body is to uphold the constitutionality of the display and describe requirements and grant the power to compel disclosures in this context to the state. There is a circuit split between the Fourth, Eighth, Fifth, and Sixth Circuits over the constitutionality of the display and describe requirements of their respective states. The Fourth Circuit has held that the display and describe requirement violates the physician’s First Amendment rights by compelling the physician to disclose an ideological message. Whereas the Eighth, Fifth, and Sixth Circuits have upheld the requirements on the basis that they are medically necessary and thereby do not infringe on the constitutional rights of the physicians. The Supreme Court has denied review and subsequently, the answer is not clear. Abortion is a prevalent topic and upholding the display and describe statutes on constitutional grounds is vital to ensuring the continuing evolution of abortion litigation and legislation toward a more cohesive and united approach. The Supreme Court has held that a woman has the right to obtain an abortion and the state may not enact regulations that place an undue burden on that right. However, the state has the authority to reasonably regulate physician speech because the state has an interest in human life and maintaining the standards in the medical industry. The state may not compel a speaker to disclose an ideological message, but the state can compel the physician to apprise the patient of the risks and the alternatives, if any, of a medical procedure in order to obtain informed consent from the patient. The Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth circuits disagree on the constitutionality of the display and describe requirements that North Carolina, Texas, Kentucky, and South Dakota, respectively, have enacted. This Article is the first to advocate for the woman’s right to be informed and to consent to the surgical procedure and urge the Supreme Court to resolve the circuit split and hold the display and describe requirements of the states’ abortion statutes as not violating the physician's First Amendment right to free speech. As all physicians are required to reveal information in order for the patient to give informed consent, displaying the ultrasound and explaining what the ultrasound depicts is medically necessary to obtain the woman’s informed consent; therefore, does not violate the physician's constitutional rights. This speech is commercial speech because it is speech involved in a commercial transaction and is subject to reasonable regulations. Individuals can differ on their beliefs regarding abortion and still agree that the woman has a right to know and consent to what happens to her body. This Article is not divisive; it protects to the woman’s right to an abortion, her right of access to information, and her right of personal autonomy.

Birth Certificate Gender Corrections: The Recurring Animus of Compulsory Sterilization Targeting Transgender Individuals

Nearly a century ago, the Supreme Court sanctioned compulsory sterilization in Buck v. Bell, echoing eugenicists and reasoning that “[i]t is better for all the world . . . [if] society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind.” In addition to this eugenics-based rationale, compulsory sterilization in the early twentieth century also sought to punish and stigmatize LGBTQ persons, who were called “sexual deviants.” Today, at least fourteen states and one territory continue to—in effect—involuntarily sterilize transgender individuals. In these states, transgender individuals must undergo sex-reassignment surgery before they can correct the gender on their birth certificates. This Article argues that like many of America’s early sterilization laws targeting LGBTQ individuals, today’s surgical requirement laws seek to advance three forms of animus that are separate from eugenics. First, these laws seek to deny transgenderism. Second, these laws seek to punish or stigmatize perceived deviance. Third, the laws impose a view of heteronormative sexual ethics, which seeks to define what sexual conduct is tolerable in society. As transgender rights advocates mount a new wave of legal challenges, they should challenge laws requiring surgery to change one’s gender on a government-issued birth certificate. Such laws violate the fundamental right of bodily autonomy to choose and refuse medical treatment because they are not narrowly tailored to a compelling state interest. Instead, surgical requirement laws advance animus against transgender persons. These laws also echo the historical animus against LGBTQ individuals that motivated compulsory sterilization during the Buck era in the early twentieth century. Thus, litigation challenging surgical requirement laws presents an opportunity for the Court to definitively overturn Buck.

Kurds Between Quests for Statehood, Struggle for Autonomy and Denied Minority Rights

The Kurdish question is a heritage of the post-WW1 peacemaking – an unfortunate legacy that has cast a long shadow for a century. The dreams of the Kurdish national movement that had developed in the late phase of the Ottoman Empire to gain its own Kurdish nation-State were disappointed after 1919, instead the Kurdish territories were incorporated into the newly founded States of Turkey, Iraq and Syria. None of these new States was ready to accept political rights for a Kurdish community as a separate people on their territory – just to the contrary, the new Turkish Republic was decided to assimilate Kurds in their ‘great’ Turkish nation, and also the soon forming new States of Iraq and Syria repressed any sign of Kurdish separatism and insistence on Kurdish traditions and a distinct ethnicity. A new situation developed in the aftermath of the US interventions since 1991. The events following these interventions were the starting point for the de facto autonomy that developed in Kurdish Northern Iraq throughout the 1990s. Hopes for an autonomy arrangement for the mainly Kurdish territories in the eastern parts of Turkey were to arise some years later. After 2011, a new opportunity for (factual) Kurdish self-government opened up in Syria as a side effect of the civil war in that State. The paper looks look into the normative benchmarks on how to deal with the Kurdish question. In a first part, the essay will reconstruct the major legal reference points concerning self-determination of the Kurdish people. In a second step, the text will turn to autonomy arrangements as a middle-ground solution for the need for structures of ‘internal self-determination’. In a third step, as a concession to ‘realpolitik’, the minimalist options in the context of minority protection will be mapped, in their potentials, but also in their pitfalls.

新冠瘟疫蔓延時的「知情同意」原則

LANGUAGE NOTE | Document text in Chinese; abstract also in English.本文就此次爆發的心冠病毒疸疫，探討中國在對抗疫情過程中所帶出的幾個倫理議題，尤其是如何把握傳染病突發處理中「知情同意」的倫理原則。根據世界衛生組織的規定，「知情同意」意指有行為能力的個體根據充分的相關信息採取行動的主動權，這個行動不能受到強制或謗導。然而在疫情突發時期，知情同意所涵蓋的諸如知情、能力、自願等原則在公共衛生受到挑戰之時也會受到一定的限制。如何在個人自主、個人權利與公共衛生、公共利益之間找到平衡？如何在最低限度的道德言語中找到共同的道德原則，這是疫情中值得探討的倫理議題。本文從世衛《傳染爆發倫理問題指南》出發，對其具 體的倫理原則進行分析，並將其原則放在此次爆發的疫情情境中加以説明，刨析這些原則在具體操作上的困境。作者最後試圖從儒家倫理學的角度闡述如何在東方的「家長主義式干預」和西方的「個體自主式不干預」中找到平衡點，如何在保護公民權利與保證公共衛生中找到平衡點。This paper addresses the question of informed consent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Informed consent is “the process in which a competent individual authorizes a course of action based on sufficient relevant information, without coercion or undue inducement” (WHO, 2016). However, informed consent based on disclosure, capacity, and voluntariness has been seriously challenged during the public health crisis we are facing today. How should we resolve the ethical conflict between individual autonomy and individual rights and public health and public good? How should we attain social consensus through “the minimum grammar” of common morality? In this paper, I first introduce the WHO’s “Guidance for Managing Ethical Issues in Infectious Disease Outbreaks” (2016) and its seven basic principles: justice, beneficence, utility, respect for persons, liberty, reciprocity, and solidarity. I then explain how those principles could face challenges in implementation during the pandemic, as there will always be tensions between individual rights, state interference, and health paternalism. Finally, I explore from a Confucian perspective the possibility of seeking the “middle point” between paternalism and individual autonomy, and between civil liberties and public health.DOWNLOAD HISTORY | This article has been downloaded 26 times in Digital Commons before migrating into this platform.

Penyelenggaraan Pemerintah Negeri di Pulau Ambon Kabupaten Maluku Tengah Pasca Berlakunya Undang-Undang Nomor 6 Tahun 2014 Tentang Desa

The purpose of this research is to analyze the state regulation in Ambon Island, Central Maluku Regency, to analyze the state Regulation after the enforcement of Act Number 6 of 2014 and analyze why the State is positioned as Adat Law on village administration in Ambon Island, Central Maluku Regency. This research is a normative-empirical legal research using secondary data type that covering three legal materials (primary, secondary and tertiary legal materials) and primary data obtained through interviews of respondents and interviewees. The results of this research indicate the first of the existence of government Negeri in the three districts of Leihitu District, Leihitu West District, and Salahutu District at the Central Maluku Regency in its regulation on pre-independence regime retained the original autonomy of the Negeri, but in the post-regime of the Negeri experienced various shifts State intervention is very dominant. Second, the State Regulation on Act Number 6 of 2014 must go through the process of inventory and classification of the existence of the State and determined by the Regional Regulation. Third, the position of the State in the Indonesian state administration system is Adat Law which has the right of autonomy to exercise power as a local self-governing community and local self governing.

Cancer Diagnosis Disclosure and Quality of Life in Elderly Cancer Patients.

Informed consent and patient autonomy rights require an optimal cancer diagnosis disclosure strategy to be used to update the patients and caregivers with the bad news. However, a cancer diagnosis disclosure may arouse anxiety and distress which increase patients’ and caregivers’ psychological burden. This study aims to explore the influence of cancer diagnosis disclosure on the quality of life in elderly cancer patients and their caregivers, and to introduce an effective way to disclose cancer diagnosis. A total of 120 participants were randomly selected in the study. The Medical Coping Modes Questionnaire was used to select informed person. The SPIKES was used to guide the disclosure procedures. The informed patients’ or caregivers’ quality of life were evaluated by the Generic Quality of Life Inventory-74 or Caregiver Quality of Life Scale before and after the cancer diagnosis disclosure and at the discharge time. After cancer diagnosis disclosure, no significant change was found on the quality of life of the informed person. With multiple psychological interventions implemented, a significant increase was noticed on the quality of life of the informed person. Applying the cancer diagnosis disclosure strategies and psychological intervention were essential to improve cancer patients’ and caregivers’ quality of life.

Practicing Pathology: The Rhetoric of Pathology in Jane Doe's Struggle to Obtain an Abortion in Federal Immigration Custody

In October 2017, the stories of Jane Doe, Roe, and Poe, young women detained at a Texas immigration detention center run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) made national headlines. They were pregnant, undocumented immigrants who were denied access to abortion because the ORR argued that they were “not people for constitutional purposes.” Using rhetorical silence, paternalistic rhetoric, and dehumanizing rhetoric, ORR director Scott Lloyd had the ultimate power of definition that allowed him to rhetorically pathologize these women as undeserving of rights and health care. Tapping into cultural and historical discourses that treat abortion and immigration as pathological and measures of an afflicted society, Lloyd and ORR policy constituted a rhetoric of pathology that demonized these women for their “crimes” of illegal immigration, sex, and requesting abortion. Their stories and the rhetorical strategies used to justify their oppression are particularly important in the continued fight for women's bodily autonomy and immigrant rights in a time of heightened border security, deportation, and family separation.

Dual consent? Donors\u2019 and recipients\u2019 views about involvement in decision-making on the use of embryos created by gamete donation in research

BackgroundReasonable disagreement about the role awarded to gamete donors in decision-making on the use of embryos created by gamete donation (EGDs) for research purposes emphasises the importance of considering the implementation of participatory, adaptive, and trustworthy policies and guidelines for consent procedures. However, the perspectives of gamete donors and recipients about decision-making regarding research with EGDs are still under-researched, which precludes the development of policies and guidelines informed by evidence. This study seeks to explore the views of donors and recipients about who should take part in consent processes for the use of EGDs in research.MethodsFrom July 2017 to June 2018, 72 gamete donors and 175 recipients completed a self-report structured questionnaire at the Portuguese Public Bank of Gametes (response rate: 76%). Agreement with dual consent was defined as the belief that the use of EGDs in research should be consented by both donors and recipients.ResultsThe majority of participants (74.6% of donors and 65.7% of recipients) were willing to donate embryos for research. Almost half of the donors (48.6%) and half of the recipients (46.9%) considered that a dual consent procedure is desirable. This view was more frequent among employed recipients (49.7%) than among non-employed (21.4%). Donors were less likely to believe that only recipients should be involved in giving consent for the use of EGDs in research (25.0% vs. 41.7% among recipients) and were more frequently favourable to the idea of exclusive donors’ consent (26.4% vs. 11.4% among recipients).ConclusionsDivergent views on dual consent among donors and recipients indicate the need to develop evidence-based and ethically sustainable policies and guidelines to protect well-being, autonomy and reproductive rights of both stakeholder groups. More empirical research and further theoretical normative analyses are needed to inform people-centred policy and guidelines for shared decision-making concerning the use of EGDs for research.

The Parental Rights of a Prison Service Officer—the Father of a Child

The article describes leave related to childbirth and child raising available to the father of the child who is in a public service relationship with the Polish Prison Service. The child’s father has autonomous rights, that is, ones that are only vested in him (paternity leave), and subsidiary rights, which are vested in him but only in a situation where the child's mother does not exercise them (maternity leave), and equivalent rights, that is, those which he can exercise on equal terms with the child's mother (leave on the terms of maternity leave, parental leave, childcare leave). Cases in which a child's parents work in different employment settings are analysed. In this connection, the author discusses regulations concerning cases of parental leave in situations where the mother and father of a child have the status of PS officers, where the father of a child is a PS officer and the child's mother is employed or covered by social insurance in case of sickness and maternity, specified in the Act of 13 October 1998 on the social insurance system, under a title other than an employment relationship, for example when she is self-employed, and finally cases where a child's mother is not covered by sickness insurance at all.

Mexico's Prospera Program and Indigenous Women's Reproductive Rights.

In this study, I examine Indigenous women's autonomy and reproductive rights within Mexico's Prospera program. Prospera gave women living in poverty bimonthly cash stipends for complying with requirements argued to improve the health and welfare of their families, including attending regular appointments at the clinic. Although hailed as successful, Mexico's new administration recently eliminated the health care component, citing various abuses. Some policy experts argue that these claims are unfounded and have questioned how Mexico will now address the health care needs of marginalized populations. Drawing on more than 2 years of fieldwork (2012-2014) in a Mayan community in Chiapas, I present evidence of abusive practices related to reproductive health care based on direct observations and audio-recordings of clinical interactions and program operations in IMSS-Prospera. Furthermore, I show how the reproductive habitus that supported these actions was shaped by long-standing institutional habits and sociocultural factors that need to be directly addressed in present reforms.